2 ms·

Wait until you realize that the entire SaaS industry and the subscription model is based on that same concept you're alluding to. I can understand service (say

Wait until you realize that the entire SaaS industry and the subscription model is based on that same concept you're alluding to. I can understand service (say a barber) that needs to have a subscription model. But, most products today such as Adobe Photoshop should just be a one-time fee. Yet, we have come to accept that everything is $/month. You own nothing. The most eggregious of these is browser-based apps. You have zero control over upgrades and whether you want features or not. With a desktop app, atleast you can ignore updates.

wayoutthere 5y ago
In practice Adobe Photoshop was effectively a subscription long before the pivot to SaaS. If you used it professionally, the old versions couldn’t open files from the new versions, so if you were part of a creative pipeline that you didn’t fully control, you got pushed into upgrading within a few months every time a new version came out. The switch to SaaS didn’t really end up costing it’s pro users much more since they were spending $600 every 2-3 years on it anyway. But I suspect it did convert at least some of the people who pirated a copy from work into paying customers.
- systemvoltage 5y ago
  Yeah, SolidWorks also does this. If you get a file from a later version from a customer, you cannot open it on the older system even if it is just a year old. Entire machine shops get sucked into this - they already run on thin margins and it is probably one of the most expensive aspects of running a shop.
- kristjansson 5y ago
  This is where the JetBrains pricing model is exactly right. If they sold licenses, people would upgrade every few years, after some needling^W marketing. Instead, they sell as a subscription with the option to cancel and keep only the features available as of your last renewal. So someone that would upgrade every release pays about the same average cost and gets a more continuous flow of new features, someone that would buy once can just buy once, and everyone gets the optionality to stop paying and 'keep' what they've already paid for.

wayoutthere 5y ago

In practice Adobe Photoshop was effectively a subscription long before the pivot to SaaS. If you used it professionally, the old versions couldn’t open files from the new versions, so if you were part of a creative pipeline that you didn’t fully control, you got pushed into upgrading within a few months every time a new version came out. The switch to SaaS didn’t really end up costing it’s pro users much more since they were spending $600 every 2-3 years on it anyway. But I suspect it did convert at least some of the people who pirated a copy from work into paying customers.

systemvoltage 5y ago
Yeah, SolidWorks also does this. If you get a file from a later version from a customer, you cannot open it on the older system even if it is just a year old. Entire machine shops get sucked into this - they already run on thin margins and it is probably one of the most expensive aspects of running a shop.
kristjansson 5y ago
This is where the JetBrains pricing model is exactly right. If they sold licenses, people would upgrade every few years, after some needling^W marketing. Instead, they sell as a subscription with the option to cancel and keep only the features available as of your last renewal. So someone that would upgrade every release pays about the same average cost and gets a more continuous flow of new features, someone that would buy once can just buy once, and everyone gets the optionality to stop paying and 'keep' what they've already paid for.